Harassment and Surveillance of members of the CNI and CIDECI-Unitierra

The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) expresses its concern for the robbery and harassment at the home of Alejandra Padilla García (Alejandra), human rights defender and member of Semilla Digna, a space of struggle that forms part of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI). Alejandra also collaborates with the Indigenous Comprehensive Training Center of Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas – Unitierra Chiapas (CIDECI – Unitierra Chiapas). The incidents occurred in the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, on May 28, 2017.

Fernando must pay a 35,500 peso (1,950 USD) fine by Friday, June 9 or have his imprisonment extended for 550 days.

Fernando Bárcenas is an anarchist political prisoner in Mexico. Earlier this week, he learned he must pay a 35,500 peso (1,950 USD) fine imposed during his sentencing by Friday, June 9 or have his imprisonment extended for 550 days. Let’s ensure he doesn’t spend one more day locked up.

We at El Enemigo Común are pleased to share the Spanish-language book Agosto Negro: Presas y presos políticos en lucha (Black August: Political Prisoners in Struggle), written by a member of our collective, Carolina Saldaña and published by SubVersiones at the end of December, 2016, in Mexico City.

[ George Jackson funeral. Photo by Stephen Shames. ]

The excerpt reproduced below in English includes the Introduction of the book and a section of Chapter 1 entitled “The tradition of Black August”.

Introduction

In commemoration of the Black August tradition that emerged in the 1970s to honor George Jackson and other comrades in the revolutionary movement inside the prisons of California, we extend our solidarity to dozens of political prisoners of the Black Liberation Movement who have been locked up in the prisons of the United States for decades.

The assassination of Basil al-Araj is a tremendous loss to a huge number of people. Reflecting on what he went through, I am filled with enormous admiration, pride and rage.

By Scott Campbell

Shortly after arriving in Palestine in 2012, a comrade invited me to a demonstration in front of al-Muqata’a in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank. It was a significant symbolic event, being the first protest against the PA directly in front of its headquarters with about 100 people holding signs on the sidewalk condemning PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to hold negotiations with Israel. Nothing much happened, but that nothing much clearly irritated the PA.

Following the protest, several people met at a nearby café. That was the first time I met Basil al-Araj. Similarly, nothing much happened, but the more time I spent in Palestine, the more and more frequently I found myself in Basil’s company. He spoke passable English, and aside from translations by others, that was how we communicated given that I embarrassingly managed to live there for more than a year and not learn Arabic.